Evening dress, Marcelle Dormoy

Variation on the 'Bengale' model

Marcelle Dormoy

Gift of Marie-Rose and Pierre Graftieaux

Summer 1948

Taffeta mounted on tulle

GAL 212.E.26.1

Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris

Marcelle Dormoy opened her own couture house in 1929. Relatively unknown in the history of fashion, she was one of the few couturières to have also been a model, notably for Paul Poiret: 'It was thanks to that period of my life,' she once said, 'that I really learnt to understand the female body.' This bustier-style evening dress was donated by her heirs. In the summer of 1948 Dormoy released this 'Bengale' model, a generous garment whose skirt, seen from behind, has the shape of a large 'M'.